As you have placed your phone on top of your luggage for research while traveling to various NYC neighborhoods, the coffee that you purchased at the café downstairs is now cold. At this time, in addition to your map application, you have likely also opened up tabs for restaurants and viewed all of the travel videos that you previously had bookmarked to view before making your reservations. It seems like no matter how many times you use your map applications to find the best areas of interest in NYC, they always seem to be displaying the exact same over-processed version of NYC. At some point during the course of your trip, you are going to begin to notice that all of the locations appear to be looking exactly the same. This is typically the point at which an otherwise planned vacation may start to lose its way.
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You could say that you want to experience the “true essence” of NYC when you arrive, but most often than not, you have made arrangements for where you intend to stay, what location you are planning to buy breakfast, and which streets you will walk (with very little thought) before arriving. Due to the size of NYC, there can be occasions when it can appear to be a relatively small town, and therefore limiting if you do not allow yourself room for exploration.
Find Accommodations Which Offer An Alternative Perspective Of The City
There is a kind of hotel that may be easily located. These hotels are minimalist, modern, and near all the major tourist locations. At times, the best option isn’t always the option that is closest to the primary location.
A hotel in the Bronx may give you a new way to experience your vacation. Although you still will be connected to the rest of New York City, your days begin at a completely different pace of life than those in Manhattan or Brooklyn. In addition to being able to view the daily routines of the local residents (the coffee shop lines for the early risers), the bakeries where locals get their breakfast before going to work, the parks that fill up after school/work, etc., you’ll hear the neighborhood while it’s awake and functioning; not just performing for you.
Culture does not exist in places that have already been cleared out to make room for the tourist experience. Culture happens in everyday moments. Who gets in line first at the bakery when it opens at 7:30 AM? What music plays coming from someone’s car window when they hit a red light? The mural you never intended to look at but looked at anyway. How often you find these experiences (without planning them as events) depends upon your place of residence.
Focus on One Neighborhood Long Enough for It to Reveal Its Secrets
One frequent error associated with a trip to New York is attempting to explore too many options in a short amount of time. You depart your hotel with a comprehensive itinerary; invest roughly half of your day on public transportation or ride-sharing services; and by late afternoon, you are primarily concerned with your fatigue levels. Although technically you have experienced a great deal, the day still feels somewhat thin.
The best way to get a feel for an area is to let one area develop itself in front of you. Travel farther than what was initially planned. Stop at a store with a bizarre storefront display instead of stopping because it has been suggested so many times as “the best” place to go, according to numerous websites. Sit down in a small café that looks like its menu is old, and the person greeting you has likely worked there for years. Although these places will rarely show up in all of those “best of” lists, they usually represent the area becoming real.
There’s plenty to slow down and take in within New York. In areas such as the Bronx, Queens, and Upper Manhattan, and areas of Brooklyn that aren’t trying too hard to be seen, you see far more when you travel slower. You start seeing some of the everyday activities happening around you, versus just the highlights. Kids leaving school. Bike delivery people traveling through heavy traffic. Attire for church services on Sundays. Slight differences in how people speak from block to block. None of this is exciting, and that is probably why it lingers longer in your mind.
Begin By Eating At Places With Established Routines
When looking for local flavor, choose the kinds of establishments like delis, bakeries, and food vendors that have clearly been included in the daily routine of the people who live there. Look for places with a high volume of employee traffic. Choose the ones that families go back to time after time because the portions of food are reasonable and taste consistent with what they’ve eaten in the past month. The most common type of establishment that demonstrates this is one that relies heavily on consistency over innovation; a very positive quality.
Find Culture In The Way People Use The Area
Although museums, landmarks, and many of the well-known cultural attractions in cities contribute significantly to an individual’s understanding of the culture of the city, visiting only these types of locations may provide you with only a structured view of New York City; i.e., viewing the city rather than being part of it.
A greater level of depth to your trip is achieved when you include informal culture as part of your itinerary. Community-maintained urban gardens. Neighborhood parks are used by residents. Used bookstores with unaligned shelves. Barbershop record stores. Murals created by school children. Church steps. Painted signs made by hand that hang from the sides of buildings show architectural style differences from street to street. None of these requires an admission fee; all represent something.
It is here that you find local character, not from a sanctioned definition of authenticity, but from visual evidence of people going about their lives. As long as you do not notice these small details, New York appears large and impersonal; however, once you start noticing them, it begins to look familiar. Once you understand not only what New York offers visitors, but how New York supports itself and its citizens, then you’ll be able to appreciate New York in ways you never thought possible.
Provide Space in Your Schedule for Slightly Impromptu Hours
This is generally how local flair operates. It seeps into your consciousness through secondary means. A conversation with a store clerk. A park you initially visited merely to take a seat for 10 minutes. A neighborhood you initially decided upon as a convenient alternative, ultimately recalling it more vividly than those sites suggested by others as priorities for visits.
